Hail to the Dinosaurs!
One of our UK Dinosaurs, Rob Richley, asked
me how much muscle a beginner could gain in
his first six months, and his first year, of
training.
He said he'd been trying to find the
answer on the internet, but everyone
disagreed with everyone else. (Gee,
imagine that -- people on the internet
disagreeing about something.)
Well, here's my take on it.
If we're talking about a beginner in
his teens, twenties or early to mid
thirties, here's what I think is both
possible and realistic -- IF, and that's
a very big IF -- he trains hard and
seriously and sensibly for the entire
time period and IF (another big IF) he
is fully committed to getting bigger
and stronger:
After six months of serious training --
ten to twenty pounds of muscle and at
least twice as strong as when he started.
After one year of serious training --
another ten to twenty pounds of muscle
and at least three times as strong as
when he started.
And that's without drugs and without any
food supplements or special diets -- and
without guzzling gallons of milk every day
or chugging the infamous Get Big Drink --
and without adding Lard Lumps just so you
weigh more.
Is this possible?
Absolutely. If you're a teenager and you
start training and hit a growth spurt,
you'll probably gain even faster. There
are countless reports of this over the
years.
When I was in my early teens, I started
training, and of course, I had no idea
what I was doing. I followed the super
duper programs in the muscle mags, and
I gained a big fat NOTHING.
Then I discovered Peary Rader's old
IronMan magazine and it's number one
writer, Bradley J. Steiner, and I
started to train the right way -- and
in about six months I had gained
twenty pounds.
At the end of the first year of sensible
training, I was thirty or forty pounds
heavier, and at the end of two years, I
was fifty pounds heavier than when I
started. And if I had known then what I
know now, I would have done even better.
I had another big gains period in my
late twenties and early thirties. That
was when I discovered abbreviated training
and used it to train for bench press and
powerlifting competition. I went from
180 pounds to 193 pounds in one year --
up to 202 the next year -- to 210 or so
the next year -- and then on up to 220
or 225 pounds. And that was long after
my beginner days. If I'd been a beginner
in my late twenties, I would have started
out at 150 or 160 pounds and probably gained
to 200 pounds or more in the first year --
IF I had trained the right way.
And that's always the problem. Most guys
get sucked into lousy training programs --
and they end up making little or no progress
at a time when they SHOULD be gaining more
strength and muscle mass than a herd of
charging elephants.
By the way, "back in the day" Strength and
Health always printed plenty of success
stories from readers -- and they even ran
a Success Stories section. If you go back
and read the Strength and Health issues from
the thirties and forties, you'll find that
for beginners, gains of twenty to forty
pounds of muscle in the first year of
training were not at all uncommon.
And this was back in the thirties and forties,
so there no drugs and no food supplements in
action. Heck, many of the guys who reported
gains like this trained at home with nothing
but a barbell and dumbbell set.
So if you're a beginner, get on the right
kind of program -- buckle down and work hard --
train progressively -- add weight to the bar
whenever possible -- push yourself -- and
get ready for some fast and furious gains
in might and muscle!
And if you're NOT a beginner, don't despair.
It's not too late. It's never too late. All
it takes is the right kind of training --
that, and a little bit of hard work,
intelligently applied.
As always, thanks for reading and have a
great day. If you train today, make it a
good one!
Yours in strength,
Brooks Kubik
P.S. Here are some great books and courses
with training programs that will help you
pack on some serious strength and muscle mass:
1. Chalk and Sweat
http://www.brookskubik.com/chalk_and_sweat.html
2. Dinosaur Training: Lost Secrets of Strength
and Development
http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_training.html
3. Strength, Muscle and Power
http://www.brookskubik.com/strength_muscle_power.html
4. The Dinosaur Training Military Press and
Shoulder Power Course
http://www.brookskubik.com/militarypress_course.html
5. Dinosaur Arm Training
http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_armtraining.html
6. Dinosaur Bodyweight Training
http://www.brookskubik.com/dinosaur_bodyweight.html
7. My Doug Hepburn and John Grimek training courses:
http://www.brookskubik.com/doug_hepburn.html
http://brookskubik.com/johngrimek_course.html
P.S. 2. Thought for the Day: "Building strength and
muscle is hard work. If it were easy, everyone would
do it." -- Brooks Kubik
